Page 376 - Cultures and Organizations

10
The Elephant and the

Stork: Organizational

Cultures

eaven’s Gate BV (HGBV) is a sixty-year-old production unit in
Hthe chemical industry of the Netherlands. Many of its employees

are old-timers. Stories about the past abound. Workers tell about how

strenuous the jobs used to be, when loading and unloading was done by
hand. They tell about the heat and the physical risk. HGBV used to be

seen as a rich employer. For several decades the demand for its products

exceeded the supply. Products were not sold but were distributed. Cus-
tomers had to be nice and polite in order to be served. The money was

made very easily.
HGBV’s management style used to be paternalistic. The old general
manager made his daily morning walk through the plant, shaking hands
with everyone he met. This, people say, is the root of a tradition that still
exists and which they call the “HGBV grip”: when one arrives in the morn-
ing, one shakes hands with one’s colleagues. This greeting ritual would be
normal in France, but in the Netherlands it is unusual. Rich and paternal-
istic, HGBV has long been considered a benefactor, both to its employees in

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